Beekeeping Mentors - Not just mentors, dear friends Part 1 of 2

"The" Mr. Wayne Stoller

Mr. Stoller grew up with bees and can remember being in the bee yards at 5 years old. His father ran 5000 (no, not a typing error) hives and moved bees all over the country.  (Just as a reference, our family currently runs under 500.)   Wayne has had many years of beekeeping experience and has shared a wealth of information with us.  I enjoy when we ride together in the truck, because I can ask him lots of questions, which he is careful to fully answer.   

The Stollers have been such a blessing for our family.  We first met Wayne and his wife Dorthy in our store.  Mr. Stoller came in one day after we put a couple of new  hives in our back yard and asked Garrett "what are those white boxes out in the back yard?"  Not realizing "who" Mr. Stoller was, Garrett was a little slow to realize what white boxes he was talking about and asked him "what white boxes".  Mr. Stoller said, "Well, those boxes you have stacked up in the back yard with a lid on them."  Then Garrett realized he was referring to the hives and told Mr. Stoller they were bee hives.  Mr. Stoller loudly hollered, "BEE's-  don't you know they could sting me when I come shopping?"  He is always such a cut-up, and keeps us all amused (and on guard) with his classic, gentle humor unique to himself.

Mr. Stoller always has a grateful smile on his face when he is in the bee yards.

You can always tell a great beekeeper.  They don't wear gloves!!!!  Which is why I'm just an ordinary beekeeper :)

 We started with 20 hives and Mr. Stoller always inquired about them when he visited the store.  When I decided to attempt full time beekeeping, Mr. Wilson (more on him in part 2) knew of another beekeeper  Mr. Hathaway who need to sell his operation.  Mr. Hathaway made us a good deal, so we went from 20 hives to 200 in a 2 week period.  Mr. and Mrs.  Stoller then came into the store a couple days after we finalized the deal with Mr. Hathaway.  Wayne asked how many hives we had again (not sure if he forgot or thought we would have killed some already).  When I told him 200, both he and Mrs. Stoller shouted "200" back at me.  It was quite humerous.  I explained purchasing Mr. Hathaway's operation and the desire to go full time.  They both said I should buy them out also.  I really had no idea what to think of their request.  We met a few more times to discuss details and see their building and yards.  They truly blessed us with an agreement we could afford.

There was one string attached to the deal.

Mr. Stoller gets to help us with our bee's.

No arm twisting required on that one.

Sweet honey for 2 sweet people

Wayne and Dorothy

As we look back on everything we are grateful to the Lord for his timing.  He provided the beekeeping business for our family at almost the exact time I had to make a decision on staying with General Motors.  In addition to the time when Mr. Hathaway and Mr. Stoller were looking to sell their operations.